Today Derby’s Shot Tower building may house a high-tech business hub in the centre of the city ­– but the name recalls a bygone age when the Morledge was home to industry and heaving wharves, when “rogues and vagabonds” robbed fairgoers, and Derbeians ran the risk of being trampled by cattle.

The Shot Tower itself disappeared long ago – its 180ft structure demolished to make way for Derby’s 1932 Central Improvement Plan – but its name lives on, taking us back to a time when it provided employment for hundreds of men and women.

These included William Tunnicliffe, a watchman at Cox Brothers’ Lead Works, and his wife, Dorothea, a “maker of shot bags”, who appear on the 1851 census along with their son, John, an 11-year-old cooper, and daughter, Elizabeth, aged 17, who worked at the nearby silk mill.

Bygone Derby with The Shot Tower in the background

They were typical of the folk who made their homes on what was one of Derby’s busiest thoroughfares, a place for work but also for commerce with a large market thriving close to Cockpitt Hill for many decades – and for enjoyment, too, with several fairs held every year.

The Morledge’s proximity to the River Derwent, to Markeaton Brook and, from 1796, to Derby Canal, led to the construction of several wharves.

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In 1808 a newspaper advertisement announced: “Building and Wharfage Land in Derby TO BE LET BY AUCTION, upon a long lease by Mr R. Finney … A PLOT OF LAND containing about 895 superficial square yards, very eligibly situated for a WHARF being near to the Morledge … and at a very short distance from the Market Place and adjoining the Morledge Brook and the River Derwent to which there is a short and early communication by water with the Derby Canal.”

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As a hub of both market and industry, it is no surprise that the Morledge was home to several pubs. Three of them – the White Horse, the Cossack (sometimes known as the Noah’s Ark) and the Old Noah’s Ark – stood side-by-side. Today’s White Horse was rebuilt and enlarged in 1920 to encompass the Cossack.

The busy market or fair sometimes brought undesirable folk into town. A report in the Derby Mercury of June 2, 1847 told how John Wright, John Farmer, Joseph Shepherd, Edward Johnson, George Swift and George Saunders were all charged with “frequenting the Morledge during the Whitsun fair and attempting to pick the pockets of several persons who were there assembled”. The group were “severally convicted of being rogues and vagabonds, and committed to the house of correction for 21 days each”.

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Sometimes stallholders found themselves in trouble. Following the same event, Ann Barker and Benjamin Powell (both of Nottingham) were “charged by Mr Webster, the inspector of weights and measures for this borough, with having deficient weights and unjust balances or scales at the stalls occupied by them, and were severally convicted of the offence, Barker in the penalty of 2s 6d and costs, and Powell 10s and costs.”

Throughout the 1850s local residents formed a microcosm of Derby life. Over on the Holmes, an island in the Derwent, porters John Wass and John Nadin and boatmen Robert Milton and John Alcock lived with their families.

Bygone Derby - the history of the Morledge

Among those living on the Morledge itself, and in the many courts and yards that ran off it, were 18-year-old Fanny Johnson, Rebecca Redfearn and 12-year-old Sarah Parker, all of whom worked in local textile mills. There were labourers like William Neal and Godfrey Dorrington, and the latter’s son, also named Godfrey, and artisans like Thomas Mellor, a sawyer, and Lewis Smith, a basket weaver. His son George, aged 14, helped in the business, while his five younger children attended school.

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John Robotham, a 74-year-old from Wilne, is listed as the “Wharfinger”, which in modern terms would be equivalent to a harbourmaster, responsible for the day-to-day activities of the wharf area.

Close by was the Morledge Mills belonging to Pegg, Harper & Co who manufactured paints, dyes, plasters and “Roman cement”. On the Cockpitt, Robert’s business dealt in a similar trade. S. J. Claye & Co were coal merchants at the “Morledge and London Road Wharf”.

On Tenant Street was the town lock-up. Ralph and Sarah Wibberly were the keepers. On the night of the census, as well as their extended family, the couple were responsible for several prisoners.

The Wibberleys may well have been regulars of the Noah’s Ark where, in 1858, landlord George Whiteman “was charged with keeping his house open at unlawful hours”.

One Sunday morning Superintendent Hilton went to the pub with Inspector Fearn to investigate claims that Whiteman was selling alcohol outside legal opening hours. They heard a woman call a warning that the police were outside, and when they entered they could find no drinkers. Until, that was, they went through to the backyard where they discovered 14 men drinking and playing “pitch and toss”.

The landlord was warned but, when the police returned half an hour later, the men were still there and the publican claimed that he had been “so alarmed” by the police that he had “forgotten” to turn them out. Hilton said: “The characters assembled were of the worst description – poachers and thieves.”

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Because it was his first offence, Whiteman was fined only half the usual penalty, but he was still bold enough to accuse the police of favouritism, stating that one neighbour (a Mr Poole) “sold more drink on a Sunday morning than he sold during the week”. Whiteman claimed that the police knew about this and did nothing.

Indeed, on the very morning he had been caught, a policeman had been to Poole’s and found seven drinkers in the stable and yet he had not been charged. Hilton assured the court: “No partiality has been used by me or any of the force, to my knowledge. If I should hear of such a case, I shall immediately report it of the Watch Committee.”

The old cattle market took place on the Morledge, moving to the Holmes in the 1930s before finding its final home at Chequers Road. Many associated industries grew up around the cattle market, like that of Mr Brearey. An advertisement of 1863 declared: “New Hide, Skin and Fat Market, Morledge, Derby. Annual wool sale. Mr Brearey will hold his Sales of wool at his Market in the Morledge every Alternatve Friday, during the season.”

An advert for large bullocks

Sometimes the beasts were seen as an attraction in themselves. An advertisement, of 1902 announced that “On Exhibition at Derby Fair, the Morledge, the World’s Largest Bullock. He is 4 years old, stands 19 hands and weighs 1 ton 11cwt.”

Some entrepreneurs took the opportunity to provide unofficial entertainments, although the law took a firm hand with them. In 1889 Arthur Scottorn and William Morton were summoned for permitting stage plays to take place in a wooden structure in the Morledge, “the said place not being duly licensed for the same”. The mini theatre had “wooden sides and a canvas top” and a “large board was on the front platform outside announcing the title of one play to be ‘Charles Peace the Banner Cross Murderer’ – one of many dramas that were written about a notorious recent court case.

It did seem that the newspaper report was paying as much attention to a critique of the play as it was to the court case, when it noted that “there was a good deal of foolery which was introduced in parts which would otherwise have been very dry’. For their parts, the accused claimed that they had travelled extensively and had never before been “called to account for not having a license”. However the authorities in Derby were not impressed. Each man received a fine of 20s.

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Thanks to the 1891 census, which by chance was taken during the week of the Easter fair, we see just how busy and varied life on the Morledge could be.

A number of temporary residents – more than 100 - were living on the Morledge in dozens of caravans. All were connected with the fair and boasted some unusual occupations for the enumerators to record.

Among the most interesting were Abraham Smith, a cocoa nut (sic) bowling proprietor; William Brickstock, proprietor of roundabout horses; Emma and Charles Sketchley (whose son-in-law, Charles Warwick, a fairground photographer, would appear in the 1911 census) were shooting gallery proprietors; Henry Gaunt a travelling showman; George Twigdon, proprietor of “Sea on Land” (an undulating carousel featuring “boats”); Amos Towle, riding donkey proprietor; and John Parker, showman of a ‘ghost show”, a sort of early ghost train experience.

The 1900 Easter fair brought its own drama. Under the headline “Exciting Scene in the Morledge”, the Derby Telegraph reported that a cow being driven from the fair took flight at some “unexplained cause” and bolted towards the crowded fairground.

The cow banged into a stall that overturned, knocking down Mr Widdowson of 31 Depot Street, and his seven-year-old daughter, May. This frightened the animal still further and “it continued its mad career” before knocking over a pram containing Chaddesden three-year-old Frederick Downing, who was injured when the cow trampled him.

An advert selling horses used with trams

The 1911 census shows the Morledge taking a more formal commercial turn with boot salesman Edward Bromfield and greengrocer Susanna Hawkins as residents. Another greengrocer was Horace Leonard Rawson, whose surname would become synonymous with greengrocery for Derbeians of several generations. He lived at No 18 with his wife, Nellie, and two young children. Rawson was the proprietor of what had become the famous Morledge Banana Warehouse that stood near the river.

At No 21 lived George and Mary Ann Gooders who kept a restaurant. At No 22 James and Edith Stevens lived with their family. James was recorded as an engineer with the Midland Railway and their son, William, worked as a “mechanical dentist” making false teeth.

In the nearby Shot Tower Yard lived licensed hawker George Powell Bucknall. At Pickford’s Yard were the family of William Disney who worked for the Corporation Tramways, and that of Thomas Delicate, a rail cleaner. At another address – one of the courts off the Morledge - lived Arthur Waterfield, a steam crane driver.

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But, while most people worked hard for their livings, not everyone was fortunate to have regular paid employment.

Living in one of the smaller courts was 74-year-old widow Ann Stokes who relied upon parish relief for her survival. Interestingly, the census listed her as being born in India. She had two lodgers – Irish-born Michael Tully and Draycott man Joseph Wheetcroft who were both in receipt of some kind of pension.

By the first half of the 20th century the condition of buildings in the Morledge had deteriorated badly. This was one of the elements that encouraged the creation of the Central Improvement Plan under the direction of borough architect Charles Aslin.

Demolition work on the Derwent side of the Morledge began in 1932 and a huge sale of unwanted masonry was held there. The Derby Telegraph reported: “Demolition Sale at Morledge. Miscellaneous Collection of Materials. Messrs D. Page and Son were the auctioneers. Roofing slates, doors, bricks, joists, corrugated iron sheets, wood, and old iron were sold in large quantities.”

When war broke out in 1939, any intended gentrification was put on hold. In 1944 a report in the Derby Telegraph said that gangs were “haunting the Morledge on Sunday nights”. Numerous complaints had been received by police from “battered people … Two gangs are apparently in opposition to each other”.

Inspector Peek of Derby’s police told the newspaper: “There is no suggestion of attempted robbery, it is sheer brutality, just a matter of hurting somebody. It is getting really serious in the Morledge. There is no doubt that these youths are a menace. Innocent people are liable to be assaulted at any moment for no reason as all.”

John Harlow of Sale Street and Douglas Mansfield of Osmaston Road were fined by magistrates after Edmund Shipley of Dairyhouse Road claimed he had been struck on the jaw as he stopped “to get his bearings” as he exited the “fun parlour” on Cockpitt Hill on a dark January night. Perhaps more remarkably, two of the attackers wore what appeared to be Home Guard uniform.

Derby's bus station in 1935

The opening of the new Council House by Princess Elizabeth in 1949 completed the Central Improvement Plan that had delivered clean-lined Art Deco elegance: a purpose-built police station and court, a well-ordered outdoor market beside the river, and the lovely River Gardens beyond, not to mention Aslin’s bus station, still mourned by many but not by all.

It was a world away from the caravans and fairs, factories and mills, rampaging cattle and fighting youths that once inhabited Derby’s Morledge.